Utah child-welfare lawsuit is likely over after 15 years

["Years ago my children were taken away cause a babysitter had auto locks on her
car and while getting my kids out of the car shut the door with the keys & baby
inside. She asked the police for help and they took all of my children away for
two years"]

...... girl... obviously there is A LOT more to the
story than that.

i'm not saying child services is always doing the
right thing, but htere is absolutely no way your kids would be taken if the
babysitter just accidently locked the door and stood there by the car and called
the police... must be more to it than that....

and it's the partial
stories we always get that make us not really believe many parents' stories...

Lorraine

March 18, 2010 2:25 p.m.

Years ago my children were taken away cause a babysitter had auto locks on her
car and while getting my kids out of the car shut the door with the keys & baby
inside. She asked the police for help and they took all of my children away for
two years. I was treated so bad I can't begin to tell you how hard it was and
after 31 years still is on all of my children. My children where sent to two
different foster homes and treated so badly. My son now 39 can't speak on the
phone because of a trauma while in foster care. My sister then 17 years old
lived with me and they took her too!! To this day she bursts into tears in the
middle of a happy day just thinking about what happened to all of us. She fears
for her own children. DCFS needs to help not destroy. I am sick today cause a
worker called re: my daughter. I am so worried.

doris

Aug. 31, 2009 2:02 p.m.

DCFS have destroy many lives in the state of Utah and they do it with the sole
purpose of obtaining federal funding . they have to show the federal gov a huge
amount of children in the system or they don't receive money . so I want to ask
you is it fair that the Department of Human and family services uses our
children to keep up whith a so rotten practices as of the ones of DCFS. no
its time for we the people to put a stop to their abuses and lets get toguether
and fight through the news . the web and with a class action collective law
suit. contact me if you have suffer their arbitrary practices at s2s.doris
@yahoo.comor [email protected] or look for on facebook

To: Another DCFS worker

Jan. 27, 2009 4:51 p.m.

Best in the country is not the fact. Statistically Utah is rated as second in
violations of fourth ammendment rights and fifth in violations of 14th
ammendment rights. Your statements prove you have no vision of the damage you
cause everyday. Granted you may save a few children from horrible lives but the
thousands of chidlren whose lives you leave in wreakage you leave is
inexcuseable. You devastate families everyday for no more cause than they
happen to ask you to uphold constitutional rights to legal representation, a
search warrant, or at least more than the kindergarten accusation of an
"someone". If the system held workers accountable for acts of vengance and
ignorance then maybe the system could be repaired but the public will never
trust the system to protect children as it stands because of the history of
blantant abuse of parents and families perpetrated by the current organization
of nonaccountability.

Fear DCFS

Jan. 27, 2009 4:13 p.m.

DCFS ruins more children than it saves. 75% of the children in Carbon County
have run through this terroist system of fear, intimidation and coercion. The
workers enter homes with no cause or reason, incite fear and perpetuate false
accusations. I made the mistake of asking for a lawyer and my family will never
recover from the terror that simple request for my constitutional right has
caused. We have spent over $20,000.00 tryig to prove our innocence (another
constitutional right violated) after our child was interrogated for 16 hours
without our permission while he was supposedly at school. These terrorists
stole my child from school and took him for a medical evaluation 3 hours away,
nothing was found, but we are still guilty without option to even attempt to
prove innocence. This system abuses parents, incites fear in children and rips
apart families in the name of protection. The damage caused by this negligent
intrusion in my family will be nearly impossible to overcome, simply because I
requested my constitutional right to legal representation. DCFS workers are
terrorists in disguise.

Aaron

Jan. 7, 2009 4:31 p.m.

Let me just say a couple thing's here about DCFS organization.I'm 16 now an for
two years i went through DCFS because of truancy after my father has past away,I
was a runaway for those two years on my own i had the ability to take care of
myself my mother did nothing wrong besides try to get these people off are
backs.They did it for the money an altogether i was placed in a mental
institaution for truancy problems.It was for the money not the help,They ruined
our lives like it was nothing i didn't get any help like said.If i could write
more I'd have pages an pages of disgust these people have done to our family.

Ok--let's get rid of the DCFS

Dec. 18, 2008 4:42 p.m.

and go back to the dark ages. Don't we have enough Jerry Springer contestants
already?

You people make me sick.

dcfs victim

Dec. 18, 2008 10:55 a.m.

Sorry to disapoint you, but I guess I'm a lunatic too. The system is set up
where guilt is presumed rather than proven. The word of a 5 year old, known to
lie, can ruin the life of an entire family. But no one can prove the kids a liar
because he is ADHD and lively. $15,000 later and a hospital stay worth $80,000
due to stress, because 5 year olds can't lie shows DCFS is out of control. The
bad outweighs the good in this case. Something else should be considered.

happyman

Dec. 18, 2008 7:11 a.m.

See that's the problem with ad homonim attacks: they let the argument move off
topic. "Lunatics's" comment was directed to those people who want the system
dismantled and stated so above. You in no way address those questions. What
do you have to say, happyman? What kind of system will protect the child from
abuse? You seem more interested in protecting the abuser.

happyman

Dec. 17, 2008 9:50 p.m.

Wow. This is turning into a real battle here.

First of all:

To lunatics: Not helping. Accusing people who think that DCFS has
abused its power of being child abusers is wrong in so many ways it is not even
funny. DCFS *has* abused its power; I've seen the fallout firsthand of this
abuse (from the inside; no press releases or after-the-fact rants from the
parent, just the train wreck as the case slowly unfolded). It's often not
intentional; when a case-worker goes in with a chip on their shoulder, otherwise
innocent behavior can be interpreted as abusive.

I think most
people agree that child abuse is wrong. The problem is that we also live under
what is known as rule of law, i.e. wrong-doings such as child abuse have to
actually be *proven* before action is taken. If we decide that child abuse is
so horrific that we can't live up to that standard, then innocent peoples lives
will be torn apart because they actually weren't guilty, and now we've taken
their children from them! The resulting attempt to save the child actually
hurts them much worse than their parent. But we must keep the rule-of-law
standard.

Another DCFS worker

Dec. 17, 2008 7:47 p.m.

Just remember that due to confidentiality DCFS can't always tell its side of the
story but angry parents caught in the act can and often do without fear of
rebuttal. Also, if perping parents could always know who referred them to DCFS,
the loss of anonymity would mean many abuses would go unreported. Do some
referents abuse that anonymity? Sure, but a lot of kids' lives have been saved
or salvaged thanks to honest people reporting obvious abuse. Is the system
perfect even now? Well, let's see, it's run by imperfect people. Face it, no
system is perfect, but Utah's DCFS appears to be one of the best in the country.

Lunatics

Dec. 17, 2008 6:38 p.m.

To all you lunatics who think it would be great if DCFS were dismantled, how do
you plan on helping children who are ritually abused by a parent? How about the
child who is beaten to death because no one stepped in?

How can you
live with yourselves? Oh wait, you are all no doubt abusers yourself, looking
for a way to live out your sick proclivities.

A child is not the
property of the parents.

To: DCFS Worker

Dec. 17, 2008 4:49 p.m.

Spoken like a true DCFS worker who runs around unchecked. I happen to have
personally been witness to the other side of the story that you're conveniently
forgetting to tell.

DCFS Worker

Dec. 17, 2008 3:37 p.m.

I went in to work for DCFS out of concern for the safety of children. It is the
hardest job you can imagine, you are worried sick about the kids, the parents
are usually angry and frequently dishonest--you absolutely hate to take a child
away from their parents, but when they are covered head to toe in bruises (not
from roller blading, but from being punched and slapped all over)--what can you
do? I have since quit DCFS, but we always did everything we could to keep
families together. Those "fake" reports are also annoying, but at least someone
cares to check if your child is okay--heaven forbid they aren't.

three11stu

Dec. 17, 2008 11:43 a.m.

I am a student who has been studying for two years to work for DCFS. I must say
that the view that the public has on DCFS is very upsetting. If you guys would
see all the good that goes on, as well as the horrors that we are protecting our
children from, I think you would be a little less forgiving

to John

Dec. 17, 2008 11:31 a.m.

Jan Gram and side kick Carol Clawson are about themselves ONLY!

John

Dec. 17, 2008 10:39 a.m.

AG Guilt, how can you say that about Jan, to listen to her speak at any
function, she was the only qualified parent in the state....Except the
JensensDCFS run rough shod over people and their children, because they
could, Leavitt, Graham,Walker, all those that could do something,did nothing.So the state taxpayers get another taste of their elected officials poor
management skills, and lack of backbone to correct such problems. $$$$$$$$,It's
only money

ERT

Dec. 17, 2008 9:51 a.m.

I think they should check out the abuse in some of the so called foster homes.

Check and balance

Dec. 17, 2008 9:21 a.m.

We had our children pulled out of school, interviewed then sent back to class.
Later that day, DCFS showed up at our home because they had a 'complaint' that
we were abusing our children. The children told them otherwise, and case was
closed. They cannot tell us who put in the malicious complaint. Not only that,
they pulled my kids out of school WITHOUT my permission or knowledge. How about
a few checks and balances? I agree with protection of children. But I also
disagree with the abiltiy to do whatever you want, whenever you want with no
legal recourse on the part of the person who has had the malicious report put
against them.

Rouge agency

Dec. 17, 2008 8:43 a.m.

Just get rid of the DCFS all together, and giving some rights back to the
parents to raise their kids.

Laura

Dec. 17, 2008 8:18 a.m.

The system will be fixed when children stop representing dollars.

happymom

Dec. 17, 2008 7:43 a.m.

now, if we could just get them to start helping families and not just children.
taking families apart does not solve the problem. giving agencies like the
dcfs, irs, fda, etc power that is not constitutionally theirs is negligent.

Debbie

Dec. 17, 2008 7:26 a.m.

After witnessing DCFS in its full glory with no checks and balances, writing
their own rules and protecting their own at the expense of families, I say
hurrah for anyone forcing them to be more accountable. Government agencies can
become corrupt if left unchecked and DCFS was one that was left unchecked for
too long. Hopefully they learned something and will be accountable for their
arrogance in the future.

AG Guilt

Dec. 17, 2008 3:18 a.m.

Somewhere out there, former Attorney General Jan Graham and her former deputy
Carol Clawson must be feeling a little sheepish knowing that their ill fated and
negligent decision to allow that child welfare lawsuit to proceed to a court
"consent decree," is what saddled the State of Utah with so much horrendous
ongoing expense, now, as the article stated, in the millions of dollars. Thanks
Jan and Carol.